Facebook has already shown what is possible with social networking. They have unquestionably changed the world. The question is, where does social networking go from there? A lot of the new websites this year are focussed on jumping on the social bandwagon and trying their best at getting you involved. Social is the new black. We now have GetGlue, Miso, Foursquare, Gowalla etc. etc. You can track your likes, earn stickers and check-in everywhere you go – great! Or is it?

Ever thought that by only going to restaurants you can check into on Foursquare, you’re not listening to real recommendations, just going to where the ads tell you to go? And what if you forget to update where you’ve been today, or haven’t added every movie you’ve ever watched to your GetGlue page? Do you spend hours updating your profile? How social is it to be constantly looking at your iPhone?

My thoughts are not unique. Everywhere I read about these sites online, the comments are flooded by scepticism. Some of my favorite quotes:

• ‘Hey look! Look at me! Look what I’m watching! Look over here! Validate me! Give me a thumbs up or a smily face! Can I get an “LOL”? Look at me!’
• I didn’t understand what this app would be good for until the part about the apps “partners”- all media companies.
• How about an app called “Who cares?”

Now, I acknowledge these are one sided quotes and there are users for all of the sites listed above. But I just don’t get it. At YourNextRead, we wanted to build a site where you don’t have to spend all day building up your likes, collecting badges and checking in before you can find a good recommendation. You just go on YourNextRead, see the summary of everyone’s opinions, and find great books to read. Is this the wrong way to go about it?

As founders of the website, everywhere we look is telling us to become more social. It wasn’t our plan, but is this what you want? Let us know in the comments below.

Here is an excerpt from PC World on 6 Things to Love about the new kindle

It’s Cheaper

The new Kindle now comes with two radio options: for $139 you can get a Wi-Fi-only Kindle, while the Wi-Fi + unlimited 3G Kindle (contract-free from AT&T) will set you back $189, just like the old model. Amazon said it hopes to bring its e-reader to the mass market, after it sold “millions” of Kindles already (no exact figure there).

The new Wi-Fi-only Kindle is $10 cheaper than Barnes & Noble’s Nook counterpart, and the 3G version also cost $10 less than the 3G Nook.

It’s Smaller and Lighter

Amazon has streamlined the new Kindle, making it 21 percent smaller than its predecessor, according to the company. It sill has a 6-inch E-Ink display, and measures 7.5-by-4.8-by-.34 inches, as compared to the 8-by-5.3-.36 inches of the Kindle 2.

The new design includes a more compact keyboard, with the numbers row removed (accessible via symbol key), clustered, smaller, navigation buttons on both sides, and a trimmed white space around the bezels.

The new Kindle is also lighter, weighing in at 8.7 ounces (Kindle 2 weighs 10.2 ounces), compared to the Nook’s 11.6 ounces for the Wi-Fi version, and 12.1 ounces for Wi-Fi+3G model.

It’s Faster

The evolved Kindle is also much faster now. Amazon says the page turns are 20 percent faster on the E-Ink display, and PCWorld’s Melissa J Perenson’s hands-on with the new e-reader reveals that navigation is “noticeably faster”, as she could “breezily scroll through menu items,” in an all-together “more zippy experience”.

It has more memory and software features

The new Kindle can now store 4GB worth of e-books, around 3,500 books after the company’s estimates. The Kindle 2 had only 2GB of internal memory, enough to store around 1,500 books.

Software-wise, the new Kindle allows you to change line spacing and the font (regular, condensed, sans-serif), catching up with competitors in this area. You can also share excerpts of text on Facebook and Twitter, and see popular passages shared by friends, aggregated as ‘popular highlights’.

Finally, a quite basic browser makes it onto the new Kindle, which is why Amazon said it is still experimental. The browser is based on WebKit, the rendering engine powering Apple’s Safari browser, Google’s Chrome, and the mobile browsers on the iPhone and Android smartphones.

It Lasts Longer

Amazon says it has improved dramatically the battery life on the new Kindle. If you keep the wireless radios off, Amazon says you can get up to a month of battery life on a single charge, and 10 days with wireless on. The power improvements are said not to come from different battery technology on the new Kindle, but rather from software optimizations.

Two Color Choices

White is so last year – finally, the Kindle now comes in two color choices. The classic white Kindle will be accompanied by a graphite model, like its big brother, the Kindle DX.

What do you make of the new Kindle? Will you buy one over an iPad? Sound off in the comments.

This includes the launch of the IBW Award, which we’ve now added as one of the lists on the frontpage of our site. This award is for your favourite book from the shortlist chosen by independant booksellers.

The Shortlist:

Adult

The Music Room by William Fiennes (Picador)

Mad Dogs & Englishmen by Ranulph Fiennes (Hodder)

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate)

The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson (Viking)

One Day by David Nicholls (Hodder)

The Other Half Lives by Sophie Hannah (Hodder)

The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels (Bloomsbury)

An Equal Stillness by Francesca Kay (Phoenix)

The Outlander by Gil Adamson (Bloomsbury)

Strangers by Anita Brookner (Penguin)

Children’s

Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo (HarperCollins)

Auslander by Paul Dowswell (Bloomsbury)

Henderson’s Boys: The Escape by Robert Muchamore (Hodder)

Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates (Red Fox)

Dogs by Emily Gravett (Macmillan)

The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech (Andersen Press)

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Macmillan)

What’s For Dinner Mr Gum? by Andy Stanton (Egmont Press)

Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray (Definitions)

The Last Leopard by Lauren St John (Orion)

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick (Orion)

The Silver Blade by Sally Gardner (Orion)

Get reading these great books! You can then vote for your favourite in your local independent book shop.

Further information about his week can be found at http://independentbooksellersweek.org.uk/. There’s also a handy tool to find your local bookstore.